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Milan-Chievo Preview: Straight As The Donkey Flies

I never get tired of marveling over Chievo’s mascot or
nickname, “i Mussi Volanti,” or “the
Flying Donkeys.” For one, are flying donkeys actually a thing? And if so, are
flying mules as stubborn as non-flying ones? And what happens when a flying
donkey defecates – if the land-bound ones produce road apples, do the flying
ones produce sky apples? I ask these questions because it seems perfect that
our midweek nemesis is such a farcical creature, considering our farcical level
of play. And with them having only one point less than us, we will need to go
straight as the donkey flies if we are to ogre-out another win this round.

Mihajlovic tries to show the team how big those sky apples can be

Maran sees his Flying Donkeys in 11th place, with three
wins, three draws, and three losses so far. Most recently, on Sunday, was a 1-0
loss to Napoli at the Bentegodi. For that match, Maran lined up Bizarri;
Gamberini, Cesar, Gobbi, Cacciatore; Rigoni, Pinzi, Pepe, Castro, Paloschi; and
Meggiorini. As of this writing, it looks like Izco is expected to miss this one
due to injury.

Two of Chievo’s best players so far this season are Paloschi
and Birsa, and if those names sound familiar, it’s because they are both
ex-Milan. Birsa is often coined “the Slovenian Messi,” while Paloschi was
chosen by the man himself to be Inzaghi’s heir. Paloschi hasfour goals and an assist so far this year,
while Birsa has two goals and three assists this season.

Ex-Milan and flying high, they will definitely want to make the San Siro remember them

Meanwhile, Mihajlovic has one player coming back from
injury: Niang. He took part in Monday’s training with the team for the whole
time and even scored a goal in the practice match at the end. I can’t imagine
him starting, and he may not see any time at all in this match, but at least he
is getting healthy. However, Balotelli is still out with his groin injury, and
Menez is still recovering from his back surgery.

We played so ugly on Sunday, but the three points has to
help the beleaguered mentality of the players. But now we are playing a team
just below us on the table, who have fought hard for their points and are
perhaps better than where people expected them to be. Will the victory be
enough to power Milan to take advantage of playing at home and grab another
three points? Given our spotty record, I wouldn’t bet the farm on it. But maybe
if we can just play it straight as the donkey flies, then with a little luck we
can get a result.

This post inspired by heavenly
Paluani Pandoro

Milan vs. Chievo

Wednesday, October 28 • 20:45 CET (3:45pm EDT)*

*Note the time difference due to European Daylight Savings Time change